Anton Xavier - Co-founder & CEO

With experience in management, operations and marketing, Anton led the FoodEssentials team from its inception in Australia and subsequent move to the US, to its current position as a leader in this niche industry. Completing postgraduate degrees in Australia, Anton gained invaluable management and marketing experience working with a variety of firms in Asia. 

Dheeraj Patri - Co-founder & COO

A serial entrepreneur, Dheeraj joined the FoodEssentials team in February 2008. He was integral in moving operations from Australia to the U.S. With a strong technical and project management background, Dheeraj has led teams within Fortune 500 companies as well as his own start-up enterprises. 

Dagan Xavier - Co-founder & CAO

With a background in nutrition, Dagan is central to the development and ongoing evolution of the FoodEssentials database assets. Managing a team of dietitians and researchers, Dagan is constantly looking for innovative solutions to enable the scaling of our data services.

Ronak Sheth - EVP, Product & Strategy

Ronak brings over a decade of experience in software applications, consulting, technology, manufacturing, and sales. He has helped drive strategic initiatives for global companies including Diageo, Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Clorox, and Jaguar across Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, India, China, Europe, and North America. Ronak earned a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Dan Lutger - Creative Director

Dan brings an artistic eye to a palette of data. A professional UI designer and web developer, Dan has years of experience helping companies from start-ups to Fortune 500s organize information with style.

Data Team

Christie Carbery, ACSM-HFS - Data Manager

Christie brings her knowledge of food and nutrition to the company, courtesy of Saint Louis University. In addition, years of working with small businesses, retail grocery chains, and data entry make her position at FoodEssentials the perfect convergence of all her skills. Originally from Chicago, Christie received her bachelor's degree from Truman State University before pursuing her graduate degree in Saint Louis.

Ashley Byrd - Datatitian Manager

Ashley graduated in 2012 with a degree in nutrition from Saint Louis University. With an interest in public health and nutrition education, she is very excited to be working with a company whose mission is to effect change in the public’s eating habits.

Nicole Rench - Senior Datatitian & Digitization Expert

Nicole is completing her senior year at Fontbonne University, studying dietetics. She plans to focus her practice in community nutrition by educating the public about disease prevention and weight control. In the past Nicole has worked in a clinical nutrition setting and has hosted events such as a healthy cooking class for kids and a weight-loss program for her hometown. Nicole is thrilled to be working for a company that encourages thoughtful and healthy eating habits for all.

Katie Robinson - Datatitian

Katie is a graduate student at Fontbonne University, where she also earned her undergraduate degree in dietetics. She brings her experience working with nutrition in clinical and food service settings, as well as experience creating nutrition panels.

Chloe Strubelt - Datatitian

Chloe is concluding her senior year at Fontbonne University, studying dietetics. She plans to continue her education by pursuing a graduate degree in nutritional sciences. She has gained experience in the nutrition field working in a clinical setting and in the foodservice industry for the past 7 years. Chloe is delighted to have the opportunity to work for a company that promotes cautious eating.

Lara Lewis - Data Collection & Digitization Admin

Lara has known since the age of 12 that she wanted to work in the food industry. Currently pursuing a degree in nutrition and dietetics, she would like to work in the field of infant and toddler nutrition. Lara is excited to be helping make food label data more accessible to everyone.

Tech Team

Henry Leacock - Java Visionary

From a family where being your own boss is the way of life, it's no surprise Henry is found at a start-up. As a formally trained musician, he has developed great attention to detail leveraged by a strong sense of discipline which lends itself to the technically rigorous field of computer science. Henry is proud to work at FoodEssentials where excellence is the standard.

Bryan Maynard - Anti-Luddite

Bryan is a self-taught technologist and natural leader. He has crafted best-of-breed solutions for financial and health insurance industry leaders, as well as the military. Bryan's passion is finding effective, elegant ways to apply cutting edge technology and best practices in software, service, and platform development to genuinely improve people's lives.

Tyler Trollinger - SQL Dominator

Tyler tackles our ever-evolving need for robust data query and analysis. He brings fresh innovation in our unpredictable environment.

Board Members

Peter Esparrago - Cultivation Capital

Peter is a General Partner at Cultivation Capital. Peter has over 25 years of global technology leadership experience in a wide variety of industries. He is Managing Partner at Growspar, a technology growth catalyst firm. Peter was CEO of IntraISP, a global BSS/OSS Software-as-a-Service company, in which he grew and sold twice (to Clearwire and Amdocs). He was President of two information security companies, Cigital and Mycroft. He was President of River City Internet Group, a holding company for various businesses (data centers, network management, ISP, WISP, SaaS, cloud storage). Peter was COO of Ariel Research, a global leader in EH&S content and software. As COO, he helped grow and sell the company to 3E. Peter also spent 16 years at Accenture, where he was a Partner and left after the IPO. Peter has an MBA in Finance from Rockhurst University, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Missouri.

Advisors & Consultants

Arnoldo Muller-Molina - Data Scientist/Consultant
SimMachines.com

Arnoldo J. Muller-Molina is the CEO of simMachines, a company focused on similarity search and pattern recognition. He has successfully applied similarity search techniques in different contexts ranging from intellectual property protection to stem cell research. He has published several peer-reviewed articles related to similarity search data structures and applications. He holds a PhD in computer science from Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan. simMachines provides the world's fastest similarity engine and solves big data problems with similarity techniques that are intuitive, accountable and efficient.

Judy Seybold - Consultant TheWellnessPlace.com

Nutrition & Regulatory Affairs professional with expertise translating scientific discoveries into meaningful health & wellness content that uphold regulatory scrutiny at the retail level to impact consumer purchase.

Shane Scott - Advisor

Shane brings industry experience to the team and is an entrepreneurial senior executive with a rock solid reputation for building high performance and process driven organizations focusing on meeting global clients’ unmet needs. His focus and strength is Global Strategic Account Management and working with business leaders across various service offerings to develop new collaborative solutions for clients. Shane’s past firm has approximately 14,000 employees world-wide and $2B in sales with a portfolio of businesses in areas of Clinical (CRO), Commercial, and Consulting.